PICKING up exam results can be daunting – but would you put it off for 30 years?

A North East school is desperately trying to unite decades-old exam certificates with their owners.

Walbottle Campus, in Hexham Road, Newcastle, has two filing cabinets filled with certificates for GCE O-levels and A-levels dating back to the mid-1970s.

Staff are now trying to trace who they belong to in the hope they will all be claimed by the summer before it moves to new buildings in September.

Julie Darby, the school’s examinations manager, said: “We think people just keep putting off coming in to pick their certificates up and never get round to it, but 30 years is long enough to put something off.

“Finding recent students is more straight-forward, but some of these certificates date back many years and it’s proving tricky to find people.

“When people collect their results they are given a slip with their grades on but this is not their formal certificate, which they may need to get a job.

“After results are given out we send postcards out to our students to tell them their certificates are ready to be collected, but it’s surprising how many people don’t bother.

“Exam certificates are much more important than they used to be. Employers are very likely to ask for proof of qualifications these days and it’s not easy to get copies. People who don’t have certificates have to apply for a copy to be sent from the individual exam board, but this costs £30 a time.

“We deal with around five exam boards and if you had to apply for certificates from all of them the cost would really mount up.”

The school is being rebuilt under Newcastle City Council’s £180m Building Schools for the Future programme.

It is hoped the first phase of the building work will be completed in time for the start of the next academic year, with demolition work taking place during the summer holidays.

Mrs Darby said: “It’s fantastic we’ll be moving into a new school soon.

“The builders are doing a great job and even tried to work quietly when we had exams during January.

“Nothing has been knocked down yet but part of the new building is coming up around us.